After a storm, what you can see is not always what matters most. A stained ceiling, a torn screen and a soaked carpet are all obvious. Water still coming through the deck above that ceiling is not. The order you repair in decides whether you do the same work once or twice.
Make it watertight and safe first
Nothing else is worth starting while water is still getting in. Sheet or tarp the roof, board or cover broken openings, and get standing water out of the building. If a ceiling is holding a pocket of water, let it out in a controlled way rather than waiting for it to come down on its own.
Leave the power off to any circuit that has been wet until someone qualified has looked at it. Stay away from downed lines. Treat a leaning wall, a sagging roof section or a carport that has shifted on its posts as off limits until it has been checked. Photograph everything before you strip it out, because once it has been hauled away it is gone.
Wind-driven rain gets in where ordinary rain does not
Typhoon rain does not fall so much as get pushed. It travels sideways and upward, under lapped roofing, in through vents and louvres, past window frames that hold up in a normal downpour, and under door thresholds. Guam saw that when Typhoon Mawar came over in May 2023.
Salt makes it worse twice over. The water dries and the salt stays behind, and salt left in gypsum or masonry keeps pulling moisture out of humid air long after the leak is closed, so a patch that looks dry can stay damp. Salt sitting on metal starts corroding it. Rinsing exposed fixings, hinges and clips with fresh water is worth doing.
Then the structure
Once the building is closed in, look at what holds it up. Concrete that was already spalling will be worse anywhere the cover has been broken and salt water has reached the bar. Cracks that appeared or opened up during the storm want a proper look, not filler. On steel canopies and carports, check the connections as well as the sheeting: base plates, bolts and welds. Untreated timber that stayed wet in this humidity will not recover on its own. If the repair goes past like-for-like, ask the permit office what your job needs rather than guessing.
Finishes last, and only when it is dry
This is the stage where work gets done twice. Drywall, trim, cabinets, flooring and paint all go back onto something that has to be dry first. Porous material wicks: a cabinet base, a chipboard core, gypsum and insulation all draw water up above the line it reached. Cut back to material that is dry and sound, replace it, and do not paint over a stain and hope. A stain that keeps coming back is telling you the leak was never found.
Before finishes go back, have someone check:
- The underside of the roof deck and inside the ceiling void, not just the ceiling below it
- Around and under every window and door on the side that faced the wind
- Behind cabinets and against the wall on anything that got wet
- Fixings, hinges, clips and connectors that took salt water
- The panel and any outlet or fitting that was rained on or submerged
What we do at this stage
We take storm work in that order: fire and water restoration, concrete and structural repair, steel canopies and carports, electrical and plumbing, then the carpentry and finishes once the building is dry.
If you are not sure what is cosmetic and what is structural, get it walked before you commit to any of it. We work island-wide on Guam, and the estimate, including the on-site walkthrough, is free. Call Matt on 671 683-8332.
